17 January 2013

Happy New Year from Parwood

Before we launch full pelt into the year ahead we thought we'd take a quick look back at the last few months at Parwood.

Despite challenging economic conditions, our fantastic facilities were very busy in 2012, with many new faces using the X-Country Course, Dressage and Show-Jumping Arenas and, with the onset of colder darker days, the Indoor School was in very popular demand.

Our training clinics have also been very busy, with all our riders looking to improve their skills with our top level Instructors.

We have been offering and will continue to do so, bi-weekly Indoor Show-Jumping Course hire throughout the winter months as well as the many training events we hold several times a week throughout the year for all equestrian disciplines.

Our forecast for 2013 at Parwood is .....adventurous! We have plans to build new stabling as the livery yard increases and potentially a new Indoor School to further our expansion to introduce further training events, demonstrations and other events in the pipeline.

We also hope to offer Gift Certificates in the near future, which will entitle the holder to use any of our facilities or training clinics - an ideal gift for birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations for friends and family.

Parwood Equestrian were pleased to agree a sponsorship in 2012 for the South East U18 Team who competed at the Weston Park Festival of Youth, in the Junior CCI* Regional Championships on 3-7th October. The weather was - for once! - looking rather promising with clear skies forecasted, and so the team travelled up to Weston feeling confident. Preparations for the weekend began with team meetings on Wednesday evening, held by the regional coach Mark Corbett and regional coordinator Sheila Barker. The whole team thankfully passed the initial trot on Thursday morning, and so everyone turned their focus to the first phase of the competition, Dressage. As scores were put up it was clear the judges were not going to be easy to impress, however Lizzie Tillard and Emma Chammings scored impressive marks, and Lucyanna Westaway and Raindance III came up trumps with an impulsive and accurate test, putting them into 5th as Cross Country day commenced on Saturday morning. With 8 clear rounds and few time faults in the bag, the team was excited about tackling the final phase of the competition.

The Show Jumping on Sunday proved to be a serious challenge with tight turns and hilly terrain; we could see from the offset that any clear round would allow us to climb up the scoreboard. Fabienne Olivier kicked off with what turned out to be a very successful day with the first clear round of the day, shortly followed by two more clear rounds from Jess Wilcox and Laura Normand. As only a quarter of the field came away from the Show Jumping with no faults, these clear rounds helped secure the South East team 3rd place overall with Lucyanna taking 4th and Laura Normand 8th individually. The whole team had a great weekend and would like say a massive thank you to Parwood for sponsoring our Mark Todd team jackets, which we were very proud to wear for the duration of the competition.

Wishing you all the best for 2013 and hope to see you soon!